I am often asked why is the Holy Bible only 66 Books, why was Apocalypha omitted, or the Dead Sea Scrolls or Gnostic books? The answers are rather complex, but let me try to give a simplified answer. The Bible is sixty six books because the Apostles were carrying many scrolls around with them from church to church, and many of the church, Corinth for example had epistles and scrolls, the consensus of the canonizing of Scripture around the time of St. Jerome was which texts cross references best, which captured the message (Gospel) most succinctly and clearly, and who wrote them, where they the true eyewitnesses like John and Matthew and Paul and finally it was which texts were encouraging the Church and circulated most among the believers (Andrew may have written a accurate Gospel that reads like the Gospel of Mark, but Mark is better). Another point about the 66 books is that there are around 5,600 scrolls around world for both Old and New Testaments, and they all cross reference, any text that didn't match with what Corinthians, Peter, and so forth had was thrown out, just like if there 12 recipes for Grandma's pasta, 11 say use red tomato sauce but the 12th recipe says use salsa Verde (green sauce). The Gnostic gospels are forgeries from circa 100-323 A.D. by Nestorian, Arians, and other heretical Christians who forged their own documents calling them the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Judas, and so forth. The Gnostic texts are false, stay away from them.
The Apocalypha is the books between the Old and New Testament. They tend to be historical accounts rather than divinely inspired (1 Timothy 3:16). I actually own a copy of Apocrypha which contains Tobit, the Maccabees and so forth. Upon reading I didn't sense the divine presence of Lord that we have with the 66 canonized books of the Bible. The reason the apocrypha was left out is the canonizers felt they were more historical, than spiritual and God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Anything that didn't have God directly talking to the people or an apostle or patriarch giving messages from God was put in apocrypha. Although it is important to note, that Jesus does quote Tobit once, and that the book of Jude (before the last book of Bible, Revelation) quotes from the Book of Enoch found in Dead Sea Scrolls, "Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 1:14-15). The Dead Sea Scrolls, specifically Enoch and some other books aren't in Holy Bible, because they were just found recently in 1946-7, and more have been found as recent as 2017. And yet the Old Testament, with exception of Book of Esther had been found in these Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Four Books of the Maccabees is important if you want to know these facts:
1. How Hanukah became a feast, and the "miracle" of lamp oil. Jesus celebrated Hanukah, "It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication." (John 10:22).
2. To learn what happened during 400yr period between the Old and New Testament, and that God was silent for those years, hence why Zachariah is shocked when the Lord's angel talks to him in Holy of holies (Luke 1:5-20).
3. To learn more about Zealots and their war with Rome.
4. To discover why Pharisees and Sadducees missed Christ, because Maccabees split the Messiah into two separate beings, when the Messiah is both the Suffering Servant/Lamb of God to take away man's sin (Isaiah 53, John 19) and the Coming King of Kings (Revelation 1:7, Revelation 19:11-16).
Another fun trivia about Apocalypha is that Jesus Christ actually quotes several parts of apocrypha, this is why Catholics and Orthodox have the apocaypha in their Bibles no doubt. Below is list, with the New Testament verse on left and the Apocryphal on the right:
"Matt. 6:19-20 - Jesus' statement about laying up for yourselves treasure in heaven follows Sirach 29:11 - lay up your treasure.
Matt.. 7:12 - Jesus' golden rule "do unto others" is the converse of Tobit 4:15 - what you hate, do not do to others.
Matt. 7:16,20 - Jesus' statement "you will know them by their fruits" follows Sirach 27:6 - the fruit discloses the cultivation.
Matt. 9:36 - the people were "like sheep without a shepherd" is same as Judith 11:19 - sheep without a shepherd.
Matt. 11:25 - Jesus' description "Lord of heaven and earth" is the same as Tobit 7:18 - Lord of heaven and earth.
Matt. 12:42 - Jesus refers to the wisdom of Solomon which was recorded and made part of the deuterocanonical books.
Matt. 16:18 - Jesus' reference to the "power of death" and "gates of Hades" references Wisdom 16:13.
Matt. 22:25; Mark 12:20; Luke 20:29 - Gospel writers refer to the canonicity of Tobit 3:8 and 7:11 regarding the seven brothers.
Matt. 24:15 - the "desolating sacrilege" Jesus refers to is also taken from 1 Macc. 1:54 and 2 Macc. 8:17.
Matt. 24:16 - let those "flee to the mountains" is taken from 1 Macc. 2:28.
Matt. 27:43 - if He is God's Son, let God deliver him from His adversaries follows Wisdom 2:18.
Mark 4:5,16-17 - Jesus' description of seeds falling on rocky ground and having no root follows Sirach 40:15.
Mark 9:48 - description of hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched references Judith 16:17."
^ (list above of verses from New Test and Apocypha compiled by kepha1, Nov 8th, 2004, 9:17 am, Did Jesus Quote from the Apocrypha? Catholic Answers Forums and .com).
The question then remains, why did the Apocrypha get left out if Jesus quotes it so much? The answer is that it didn't meet the God Inspired requirements, but if you want to have it, pick up a copy of Holy Bible that is Catholic or Eastern Orthodox and you will have those extra books. I would be careful about the Dead Sea Scrolls, most of them are just the Old Testament, but there are two Books of Enoch, one aligns with Scripture, another is mystical and even perhaps Kabbalistic (Jewish occultism). I would handle the Book of Jubilees, both Books of Enoch, and so forth with care. Stay away from Gnostic books, and all other books. Stick to 66 books of the Holy Bible (NKJV, NLT, NIV, ESV) which were selected because they contain the eyewitness accounts of Jesus, and everything God said to man that is relevant for us to repeat and share: Genesis to Revelation.
Trust the Holy Scriptures of the Holy Bible, they are trustworthy (1 Timothy 3:16). They are God breathed and useful for teaching, and must be what we base all our theology, doxology, Christology, eschatology, and beyond on. Amen.
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